O’Brien. Green. Van Vonderen. Not shabby by any stretch when it comes to what the ABC will offer for their television coverage for the evening of the Qld Election. Add in Jeff Seeney and Paul Lucas and you’ve got a compelling coverage. It’ll be a fitting end to one of the state’s most interesting elections yet. From the press release:
Queensland VOTES 2012
Election Night Coverage on March 24The new ABC Brisbane headquarters will be transformed into the ABC Queensland Election Centre on Saturday, March 24, hosting the corporation’s multi-platform election coverage from
the building’s new foyer.On election night the ABC will mount the most comprehensive broadcast on TV, radio, online and
mobile. Continuing the leading coverage of the Queensland election campaign, the ABC will provide the most accurate and expert analysis on election night.ABC TV coverage will be live nationally on ABC News 24 and on ABC1 in Queensland only. On-air from 6.30pm (Qld time, 7.30pm AEDT), veteran election broadcaster, Kerry O’Brien will host the TV special, with ABC Election Analyst, Antony Green. This is Antony Green’s ninth Queensland election, and as always, he is confident the ABC election computer system will call the results as early as possible.
Joining Kerry O’Brien on the TV panel for their analysis, will be Jeff Seeney (LNP), Member for Callide, (Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Minister for State Development, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Planning and Shadow Minister for Reconstruction), and Paul Lucas (ALP) retiring Attorney-General, Minister for Local Government and Special Minister of State.
ABC News 24 Mornings presenter, Joe O’Brien, will be providing half-hourly updates with a seat by seat analysis, and 7.30 Qld host, Jessica van Vonderen will be talking to candidates from Cairns to the Gold Coast.
Full TV coverage of the results will continue the following day on ABC News 24, including Insiders with Barrie Cassidy at 9am(AEDT).
ABC NewsRadio and 612 ABC Brisbane will be joining forces to host ABC Radio’s live coverage from the ABC Queensland Election Centre from 6pm (Qld time), 7pm (AEDT). Co-hosted by ABC NewsRadio’s ‘Breakfast’ presenter, Sandy Aloisi and 612 ABC Brisbane’s Mornings presenter, and another veteran to Queensland election broadcasts, Steve Austin, will be joined by a special panel of guests.
Panelists include Stephen Robertson, (ALP) Water Minister and Member for Stretton; John-Paul Langbroek, (LNP) Shadow Police and Member for Surfers Paradise; and Dr Paul Williams, Senior Lecturer in Politics at Griffith University. There will be regular crosses to reporters in electorates around the state, as well as full analysis and updates on all the results as they come in.
The following day, ABC NewsRadio’s election specialist Steve Chase will be on air from 8am – 10am (AEDT), reviewing the results with Marius Benson, the network’s political editor, in terms of the national implications of the results.
On ABC Local Radio, there will be a special national post-election edition of AM with Tony Eastley at 8am (AEDT) on Sunday morning. The AM team will be on the road in Queensland reporting on the latest issues, the week leading-up to election night.
The radio coverage will be audio streamed via 612 ABC Brisbane and NewsRadio websites.
ABC News online will have the election results fed directly into the ABC News website. As well as providing the latest news, information and analysis of the election, with seat-by-seat results, the ABC News 24 coverage will be streamed live at abc.net.au/news and the geo-block will be removed, for people overseas.
If you’re on the move on election night, download the ABC iPhone App or ABC iPad App where you can watch the live stream from ABC News 24, or listen to ABC NewsRadio
At the ABC Elections website, there is Antony Green’s ‘Election Preview’ and all the information you need to know about each electorate; a directory of candidates; past election results and Antony’s blog at abc.net.au/elections
For up-to-the-minute news from the Queensland election campaign trail, go to the ABC’s dedicated ‘tumblr’ feed.
On Twitter, the hash tag is #qldvotes and follow @antonygreenabc and @abcelections